A Perth childhood cancer researcher and clinician who is driven by his belief that it's unacceptable for children to die from brain tumours, has today been announced a nominee for the 2018 WA Australian of the Year Award.
Dr Nick Gottardo
Dr Nick Gottardo, Co-Head of The Kids Research Institute Australia's Brain Tumour Research Team and Head of the Oncology/Haematology Department, and Consultant Paediatric Oncologist/Neuro-Oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children, said he was incredibly honoured to be nominated for the award.
"I feel very humbled to be nominated for this award," said Dr Gottardo, “particularly as I was nominated by a group of parents and grandparents of children who’ve had cancer.”
"I see this honour as a reflection of the dedication and passion of everyone who is working to improve the lives of kids with cancer and an opportunity to raise awareness about childhood cancer, which is the biggest cause of death by disease for children in Australia,” said Dr Gottardo.
“We need to find better, more targeted therapies with fewer side effects so we can give these kids the best possible chance of a cure and long, dignified lives."
The Kids Research Institute Australia Director Professor Jonathan Carapetis congratulated Dr Gottardo on this achievement.
"Nick is not only an outstanding cancer researcher and paediatric oncologist, he is a genuine and caring person who puts kids at the heart of everything he does," said Professor Carapetis.
"Nick has brought together an excellent team of people who work tirelessly to find better ways to treat and cure cancer in children. Being both a researcher and clinician, he is an example of true translational research, where what is discovered in the lab is turned into real-life benefits for kids on the ward."
UPDATE 22/11/17: A congratulations from Telethon Kid Institute to the winner of the 2018 Western Australia Australian of the Year – Dr Tracy Westerman.
Dr Gottardo is also an Adjunct Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Western Australia and a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP).
About Dr Gottardo
Dr Gottardo's medical career began at Leeds University with a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery/Chirurgery. He worked for two and a half years as a doctor in the UK, before heading to Australia in 1996, where he took up a position at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children and began a PhD at The Kids. After completing his PhD, Dr Gottardo headed to St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, USA, one of the world's premier childhood cancer institutes. He spent three years at St Jude as a post-doctoral brain tumour fellow and gained extensive experience in the laboratory in brain tumour model generation, preclinical testing and brain cancer cell biology, as well as expertise in the management of children with brain tumours in the clinic. Dr Gottardo returned to Perth in 2008 as a Consultant Paediatric Oncologist/Neuro-Oncologist and established the Brain Tumour Research program at The Kids Research Institute Australia. In 2012, he was awarded the Raine Clinician Research Fellowship and in 2016 the Cancer Council Western Australia Research Fellowship.
In his clinical capacity, Dr Gottardo is the Head of the Paediatric Oncology/Haematology Department at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. He collaborates extensively both nationally and internationally; nationally he is the Deputy Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology and Oncology Group (ANZCHOG) and Chair of their Central Nervous System (CNS) Tumours Subgroup, and a Board member of the Australian Children’s Cancer Therapy (ACCT) group. He is a founding member of the Brain Cancer Discovery Collaborative (BCDC) – a collaborative network consisting of the best brain cancer scientists and clinicians across Australia. Internationally he is a member on the North American based Children’s Oncology Group (COG), the largest children’s cooperative clinical trials group, CNS Tumour Committee and leads the COG’s upfront clinical trial for patients with WNT-driven medulloblastoma. He is also a member of the International Medulloblastoma Working Group.